Posts Tagged ‘optical illusions’

Some people have a great mind for math, and some don't. Until my last year of high school, I enjoyed my math classes very much and even did math problems from old textbooks from the late 1800's, just for fun. (So I was a nerd, okay?) 🙂 The further I went in math in high school, though, the less enjoyable it became to me. When Algebra 2 and Math 4 started going towards trig, sines, cosines, and calculus, it was beyond my interest and abilities and was really no longer fun. Now, besides grades for classes, the most I do with numbers is my game or two of Sudoku every evening. I loved base 2 in junior high, but I'm not sure how to solve the Sudoku puzzle from http://xkcd.com on the right.

I recently saw a pie chart that was an encouragement me for having abandoned Algebra, once I got deeper into it.

All joking aside, there really are many jobs that require one's being able to work accurately with numbers. For instance, if an engineer's calculations are off even slightly, the results can be disastrous, as seen below.Click here to continue reading this post ⇒

Recently I ran across something on the web that claimed that you could tell whether you were right-brained or left-brained, based on which direction you saw a revolving object spinning. Upon thinking about that, I decided to do a blog post on optical illusions. This post is longer than most, but it's also not much verbiage and mainly images.

Optical Conclusions?

"We are fearfully and wonderfully made!" It is truly fascinating what our brains do with the images that come in through the eyes. For a few years while still in my 40s when I had my last pair of contact lenses, I tried monovision. I was really surprised how quickly my brain adjusted into using my right eye for distance and my left eye for close up.

As I mentioned in the "today's instant vacation" section above, I found something online that supposed helped you know if you were right- or left-brained. Below is the general idea.

If you can imagine having a overhead view of the picture below, which way is the axe spinning for you, clockwise or counter-clockwise?

(I originally put a picture of a spinning brain in the space above, but some people had a hard time seeing a difference in the spinning. I think the axe will make it easier to see.) According to what I read, once you perceive it going in one direction, it's hard to switch but it is possible. Then, once you see it switched, it can be just as hard to get it to switch back! For me, it switches frequently and without my even trying to make it do otherwise.

Supposedly if you see it going counter-clockwise first, you use the right side of your brain more. If you see it going clockwise, you use the left side of your brain more. I'm not sure that that's true. A retired science professor who reads my blog told me that my readers should be skeptical - that it's not terribly scientific. Below are the characteristics - I'll let you decide if you think it's true for you. Maybe it's like horoscopes - so general and glib that the statements could apply to almost anyone.

I found another interesting thing focusing on the left-brain/right-brain thing. Look at the chart below and say the COLOR, not the word.

Apparently your right brain tries to say the color, but your left brain insists on reading the word. I'm definitely left-brained on that one!

In the picture below, which square is darker, square A or B?

Believe it or not, square A is exactly the same shade of gray as square B! I couldn't believe it myself, so I used a little utility I have for figuring out colors on websites. According to the utility, both squares are hex color #787878.

In the picture below, the entire horizontal bar is the same color all the way across. In fact, it's the same #787878 as in the two squares of the picture above.

Try to count the gray dots in the image below. I promise, it's not an animated picture at all.

The picture below is also not animated, but most people see all kinds of motion in it.

In the image below the brain also produces motion when you concentrate on the black dot in the center and then move your head forward and backward.

In the three images below, lines that are actually straight appear to be sloping or curved because of what's near them.

In the picture below, which of the center dots is larger?

Actually, the center dots are the same size.

In the picture below, which of the figures do you think would measure the tallest with a ruler?

Look at the the pictures below to see what you see first.

Did you see a duck or a rabbit?

Did you see two faces or a vase?

Which word did you see first?

Did you see a face or a word?

Is the book face up or face down?

Which way are the stairs going? If you look long enough, their direction will change.

Did you see a young wife or an old mother-in-law?

The Tower of Pisa leans slightly more each year. In which picture below is the Tower of Pisa leaning more?

Actually, it's the same picture twice.

The following is an interesting example of what the brain can do with what our eyes take in. Stare at the four black dots in the center of the image below for 30 to 60 seconds. Then quickly close your eyes and look at something bright (like a lamp or a window with sunlight coming through it). You should see a white circle with an image inside it.

I'll close with an interesting picture I found on an optical illusion website. I don't know if it's actually an optical illusion, and I really don't know how they did it!

The annual Bible Conference was a huge blessing, but it is now past and it's back to classes. It's hard to believe that six weeks from now this school year and graduation will be histoire. So much to do in the next six weeks...!

We received some Easter pictures of our grandson Drew. Here are several...

For anyone interested, our daughter Megan has put out on the web some scrapbook pages she's done on Drew. You can see them by clicking here.

quotation...

"Our love for God is a reflection of His love for us." - Dr. John Vaughn

=^..^= =^..^=
Rob

A baby first laughs at the age of four weeks. By that time his eyes focus well enough to see you clearly.

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a little about me…

My name is Rob Loach and I welcome you to my blog. People come here for an "instant vacation." You can learn more about me and about my instant vacations, including why my blog is called "ivman's blague," by visiting the about page, where you can watch my TV interview about my blog. My site is thirteen years old, so check out the tabs at the top of this page, subjects of interest to you in the tag cloud (below), and older blog posts (about 750 of them) not on the home page of the blog. Though I am posting less often than at first, there's still lots of archived humor here for you to enjoy!

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I post a lot of funny images to my blog. Most of them are sent to me by my readers. If the images come with copyright information, I leave that intact, of course. Otherwise I post them in good faith that they are copyright free. I invite any copyright owner to contact me if I have unwittingly infringed by posting the images as they have come to me.